The death of an 18-year-old at the University of Victoria has prompted calls to make naloxone, a medication that reverses an opioid overdose, widely available on university campuses and even in high schools in British Columbia.
Sidney McIntyre-Starko, a first-year general sciences student who died of a suspected fentanyl overdose in her dormitory, was attended to by campus security, but naloxone wasn’t administered until nine minutes after they arrived on the scene, according to 911 records obtained by her family.
In the wake of her death, B.C.’s Minister of Post-Secondary Education, Lisa Beare, met with the province’s 25 public postsecondary institutions, and the group has agreed to roll out measures for overdose prevention in time for the fall semester, including the distribution of naloxone and the implementation of training standards for the medication.
A survey of universities across Canada found a variety of policies on naloxone – specifically, whether residence supervisors, often students themselves, know how to administer it and whether it is widely available.
“A minimum set of standards for universities across the country would be great,” said Isabelle Easton, director of campaigns and community relations at the University of Victoria Students’ Society. “Having consistency across the board would at least allow for some sort of accountability to happen.”
Earlier this month, the school said making nasal naloxone available in residences is a priority for the fall.
Currently, student staff are not required to know how to administer injectable naloxone, though they have access to the training if they choose. Training on the use of nasal naloxone will be offered regularly once the university can secure a stable supply of the drug, the university said in an unattributed statement.
Administrators at Simon Fraser University are also considering options to improve overdose response. Its student staff are also currently not trained to administer naloxone.
But Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo requires naloxone training for its community residence staff, who carry the drug with them while on duty. The University of Northern British Columbia has similar protocols. At both campuses of the University of British Columbia, nasal naloxone kits are located in student housing buildings, and residence staff are trained to use them.
Naloxone training for student residence workers is also mandatory at many universities in Central and Eastern Canada, including Western, Queen’s, McGill and Dalhousie.
Toronto Metropolitan University plans to have all its residence staff trained to administer naloxone in preparation for the upcoming school year.
Many schools also have dedicated first aid teams of student employees with medical training – including in the administration of naloxone – who work separately from security staff. McMaster and UBC’s Okanagan campus have such teams, but UVic and the UBC Vancouver campus do not.
The BC Coroners Service revealed last month that 17- and 18-year-olds accounted for 60 per cent of those 19 and younger who died of drug toxicity from 2019 to 2023, making it the leading cause of death in the province for people under 19.
After their daughter’s death, Ms. McIntyre-Starko’s parents launched a website in her honour to advocate for overdose awareness and to call for the implementation of mandatory CPR and naloxone training in high schools and improved access to the drug in schools and on campuses.
The province is considering such measures and has called an inquest into Ms. McIntyre-Starko’s death.
Ashraf Amlani, co-founder and principal of a public affairs agency that works across Canada on K-12 substance use prevention, said training in high schools could certainly reduce the death toll of overdoses.
“There’s no reason why we should not be taking these very achievable, affordable steps to make sure naloxone is available and that overdose prevention training is provided,” Ms. Amlani said.
She said teaching about overdoses in the context of other health issues offers students the best chance at navigating adult lives that will likely involve exposure to substance use.
She pointed to a study in Seattle that found a direct correlation between increased heart attack survival rates and the introduction of CPR training in schools. She said naloxone training could have a similar impact for the toxic drug crisis.
“We don’t, as a country, have any national standards for substance use education,” she added, explaining that many school districts in Canada make naloxone available and provide overdose education, but many do not.
The Toronto District School Board said in a statement that most of its high schools are supplied with naloxone and that support workers carry the drug with them.
The Edmonton Public School Board said in a statement that its schools are not stocked with the drug because of parental consent issues. Its schools rely on emergency responders to administer the drug.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that, according to the BC Coroners Service, 17- and 18-year-olds accounted for 60 per cent of all drug toxicity deaths in 2023. In fact, 17- and 18-year-olds accounted for 60 per cent of those 19 and younger who died of drug toxicity from 2019 to 2023. This version has been updated.